Food & Nutrition [Volume 3, Number 4]

\ I I
August 1973 • Volume 3 • Number 4 I For Building Use Only I PROPERlY Of THE
URRARV
OCT 9 1973
UNIVEtt~llY OF NORll'l {; ... 14ilt.INA
AT GREENSI:lOHO
0447A
to
A group of teenagers
in Napa, Calif., or­ganized
by the Jaycees,
sort USDA-donated
foods at the warehouse
and take it to low­income
elderly partici­pants
in the food dis­tribution
program who
are unable to pick up
the foods themselves.
Terri Ow-Wing, coor­dinator
of the pilot
program (p. 3 top left
and bottom right pho­tos,)
helps out in the
food deliveries.
StudentsJoinJaycees
FOR MOST ELDERLY Americans
the "golden years" are a time to get
out of the hectic day-to-day routine
and enjoy the comforts bought with
years of labor.
Yet for many of the elderly, these
years can mean isolation, loneliness
and disillusionment brought on by
low fixed incomes, physical disabili­ties,
and the accompanying thought
that no one really cares.
In Napa, Calif., a group of teen­agers,
organized and backed by the
local chapter of the United States
Jaycees, a national service organiza­tion,
have been helping to make
life better for one golden age group
through the Drive to Serve program.
Drive to Serve is a food delivery
system manned by volunteers who
assist low-income elderly and dis­abled
participants in the county­operated
USDA food distribution
program.
The recipients of this service are
at least 65 years old or totally dis­abled.
Because of lack of transpor­tation,
personal disabilities, or the
august 1973
inability to physically handle the up
to 40 pounds of food allotted per
person a month, it is necessary for
the food to be delivered to their
homes.
The Drive to Serve concept has
been successfully tested by volun­teer
groups in various parts of the
country, including five projects op­erated
by individual Red Cross
chapters.
The significance of the Napa proj­ect
is its implications for nationwide
application. According to Bud Ge­low,
chairman of the Napa Jaycees
Drive to Serve project, "Jaycee
chapters across the Nation were
watching the project with interest
as a possible model for other Jaycee­sponsored
Drive to Serve efforts."
As a result of the Napa Jaycees'
successful 6-month pilot project, the
program has been extended indefi­nitely
by an agreement signed by the
Napa Jaycees, local school officials,
the State of California, and FNS.
The Napa project grew out of
the 1972 National Jaycees Conven-
3
,,
tion where a Jaycee sponsored Drive
to Serve project was voted one of
the top five priority projects. The
Napa chapter, joined by the county
welfare department and State and
local school officials, signed an
agreement with FNS to organize and
operate a pilot program for 6
months, using volunteer high school
student help.
In September the group began
recruiting volunteer high school stu­dents
from Napa High School. The
program started small-ten students
using their cars, gas, and free time,
served 22 households. Upon com­pletion
of the 6-month test, more
than 50 households containing about
90 persons were receiving regular
monthly deliveries of food. Over the
course of the pilot project, nearly
70 teenagers became involved. The
majority of students were from
Napa High School, with additional
volunteers from Napa's Justin-Siena
and Vintage high schools.
The Napa Jaycees credit the suc­cess
of the program to the teenage
volunteers and their coordinator,
Terri Ow-Wing. Terri, a junior at
Napa High School, was appointed
coordinator by the Jaycees. She
makes sure the students come to the
warehouse the day before the
monthly delivery to pack the indi­vidual
household boxes and arranges
routes and schedules for the 4 days
the foods are delivered.
Terri explains that operations in
the beginning were "more or less
on the spur of the moment." When
the day came to pack or deliver, she
would call friends and ask them to
help out.
Operational proficiency has im­proved
over the months and now
schedules are made up a week in
advance of packing and delivery.
Twelve regular routes have been
established to cover the city and
nearby countryside. Students work­ing
in pairs can generally complete
their selected routes in an hour.
Teenagers selecting the city routes
make up to six stops. Those volun­teers
who select longer routes make
fewer stops, with a couple of long­distance
trips servicing only one
household.
The students' commitment has
august 1973
grown with their one-to-one meet­ings
with the elderly and disabled.
Ray lopez, head of the food distri­bution
center, says that while the
expressed purpose of the program
is to get needed food to the elderly
and disabled, equally important aims
are teenager I elderly interaction, and
developing within the teenager an
awareness of the problems of the
elderly. The teenagers are urged
not to drop off the food and hurry
on but, if they aren't rushed, to
stop and talk for a few minutes.
Many of the teenagers help to put
the food away:
lopez goes out regularly to visit
the recipients, "just to see if every­thing
is all right." Elderly reaction
to the teenagers, lopez says is good.
"They really like the kids."
At ceremonies at Napa High
School upon completion of the 6-
month pilot program, students par­ticipating
in the Drive to Serve proj­ect
were presented Certificates of
Appreciation from USDA. Addition­ally,
the volunteers were lauded by
local, State and Federal officials, and
by the national Jaycee organization
for their contributions to the success
of the program. 'k
National Guard Volunteers
IN SALEM, MASS.-where land­mark
homes, still standing, were said
to house witches in the 17th century
-some modern-day magic has cast
a spell of community spirit that is
bringing food to the town's elderly
shut-ins.
The local National Guard unit has
volunteered to help other Federal,
State, and city agencies in a coop­erative
venture to deliver USDA-donated
foods to the doorsteps of
senior citizens who are unable to
travel to distribution centers.
One day each month, at the Salem
food distribution center at 1 OS Con­gress
Street, about 10 Guardsmen
load bags of food , each earmarked
for a particular family or individual,
onto four trucks supplied by the
Guard. The trucks make several trips
along specified routes, delivering
5
food to four housing projects for the
elderly and to individual homes.
"We have people participating
now who were never in the pr_ogram
before, because they couldn't get
out to pick up their food," says
Michael J. Rolli, director of food
distribution programs for the Massa­chusetts
Department of Public Wel­fare,
the State agency responsible for
distributing food and certifying re­cipients.
"Since the delivery program
started last August with 88 partici­pants,
it's been steadily expanding.
In February, 193 people received
food."
Surveys conducted in the Salem
area had revealed that many po­tentially
eligible elderly people were
not participating in the food distri­bution
program due to lack of trans­portation
or ill health.
Capt. Leonard Cormier, com­mander
of the Salem National Guard
decided that a delivery program to
help the elderly would be a good
way to involve the Guard in commu­nity
affairs. He arranged for Guards­men
to participate on a voluntary
basis, substituting the work for
certain training exercises.
Specialist 5 John Alleruzzo is typ­ical
of the volunteers in the pride
and enthusiasm he shows toward the
program."
"We know we're providing a real
service," he says. At Christmas, many
recipients tried to express their grati­tude
by tipping the men. When their
money was refused, the recipients
sent Christmas cards and home­baked
cakes and cookies to the
Guard Armory.
"What's making things happen
here," says Mrs. Ferrante, "is effi­cient
coordination of Federal, State,
and local programs."
The local government pays the
rent for the food distribution center.
The food is packaged in bags by
several employees hired under the
Federal Emergency Employment Act.
Local college volunteers also help
out.
State participation involves the
National Guard, the Department of
Public Welfare, and the Department
of Education, which is the official
food distributing agency for the
State.
6
The food distribution program is
designed to help low-income per­sons
maintain a balanced diet by
using donated foods to supplement
their own food purchases.
About 20 items are available each
month, including canned meat or
poultry, processed fruits and vege­tables,
butter, flour, and shortening,
among others.
The 2,000 Salem participants can
take all or some of the commodities.
Those on the delivery program indi­cate
their choices on a mail-in order
form.
Mrs. Gertrude Fleming, lively and
ebullient at 71, is delighted to accept
all the foods.
"At first I only took a few little
things," she explains. "I didn't want
them to think I was greedy. But then
one of the volunteers pointed out
that the food is there to be used,
and now I can make use of every­thing.
"I love to cook!" she continues,
with a glance toward the small but
tidy kitchen in her apartment at the
Pioneer Terrace Housing for the El­derly.
"I use the foods to make
bread, meat pies, baked beans, rice
custard pudding like my mother
used to make .... "
The Salem National Guard's role
in food delivery is a prototype that
other units in the State are beginning
to emulate. It's an effective way to
deal with chronic personnel short­ages
in order to make sure that do­nated
foods for the elderly are not
"so close and yet so far." i::f
Aeeounting
Made
·~ FEW PEOPLE NEED to be told how
challenging it is to manage the fi­nances
of a school cafeteria or of
any school food service operation.
Keeping accurate accounts is crucial
to a school system's ability to pin­point
efficient techniques and cost-food
and nutrition
saving methods, which help to maxi­mize
productivity and minimize ex­penditures.
But what's the best way to go
about obtaining such records? For
example, is it more accurate to list
food as an expenditure when it's
purchased ... or when it's actually
used? And what about accounting
for free and reduced-price lunches
between the time they're eaten and
the time reimbursement is received?
Up until now, school districts
across the country have been on
their own in their search for uniform
financial accounting procedures
which will meet the management
needs of all sizes of food service
operations.
Keeping pace with the continued
rise in Federal subsidies to child
nutrition programs fs one very real
incentive for establishing the best
possible record-keeping system. And
reducing the number of "problem
areas" in school food service finan­cial
management, as pointed out in
yearly independent audits, is an­other.
It is a credit to the resourcefulness
and expertise of school food service
and business personnel that many
excellent accounting systems are al­ready
operating at close-to-peak ca­pacity
throughout the Nation. Soon
all schools will be able to share in
the successes in financial manage­ment
experienced by schools
through the availability of the new
"School Food Service Financial
Management Handbook for Uniform
Accounting."
A reference guide of proven and
approved ways of tackling account­ing
problems, the handbook can be
obtained by any school through a
request to its State Child Nutrition
Director. It is the result of nearly
2Y2 years' joint effort by local and
State school business officials, school
food service directors, and expert
accountants under the direction of
FNS.
The purpose of the handbook is
twofold. First, it furnishes users a
good management tool as a proven
method for control over the admin­istrative
and financial aspects of a
school's child nutrition programs.
Secondly, it establishes sought-after
august 1973
uniform guidelines which help
schools control their expenditures
and make complete data reports to
State and regional administrators.
The School Food Service Financial
Management Handbook provides
not only a uniform accounting sys­tem,
but also specific "how to's,"
basic management information in a
comprehensive form, and a standard
data flow for reimbursement report­ing.
The handbook is available in
both a streamlined, simplified for­mat
for smaller school food service
operations, and a "complete" for­mat
especially useful to large or
complex operations.
"Until now, we could not accu­rately
gauge why one school had
significantly lower operating ex­penses
than another in a similar
situation," explains Herbert Rorex,
Director of the FNS Child Nutrition
Division.
With the accounting principles
and techniques for comparison of
data established in the handbook­and
every school readily capable of
referring to the same book for ad­vice
and clarification-the individual
school will now be able to alleviate
many of its accounting problems in
short order and in confidence.
In addition, improved statistical
data from schools will assist the
Washington staff in planning for
future child nutrition program de­velopment.
This, in turn, ultimately
benefits the individual schools and
school districts, ensuring accurate
fund distribution and reimburse­ments,
in line with the new "per­formance
funding" requirement set
forth in recent child nutrition legisla­tion.
The Financial Management Hand­book
was developed and written by
a well-known accounting firm, in
close association with representa­tives
of the American School Food
Service Association (ASFSA) and the
Association of School Business Of­ficials
(ASBO), who initiated the in­formal
request to USDA for a uni­form
accounting system early in
1971 . Under FNS guidance, the ac­counting
firm was contracted to do
the job in the early months of 1972
-and an in-house committee of
Federal child nutrition and school
lunch employees reviewed each
chapter of the draft as it was written.
In April 1972, FNS invited a 35-
member advisory committee con­sisting
of regional personnel, State
School Lunch Directors, Superin­tendents
of Schools, Chief State
School Officers, and State account
coordinators to meet in Washington
and review the first complete draft.
As a result of this meeting, the
draft was modified and field-tested
in nine school systems in five States
for 3 months last fall. The school
systems-in Virginia, Ohio, Arizona,
Pennsylvania and Maryland-repre­sented
various types of food service
operations and the testing involved
all levels of government from dis­trict
to Federal.
When field tests revealed a need
for further simplification in language
and procedures, Peat, Marwick, and
Mitchell again revised the draft. The
revised version was accepted with
only minor changes by the advisory
review committee this March.
The handbook also prescribes a
basic information system through
the use of accounting principles and
techniques. These principles en­compass
all of the functions found
in sound financial management in­cluding
bookkeeping, payroll and
other labor management controls,
inventory management, purchasing,
and cost and revenue accounting.
"The handbook will become the
single most significant element in a
sound cost-accounting system," ex­plains
David Oglesby, FNS national
project monitor.
As national project monitor,
Oglesby has been instructing select­ed
FNS personnel in the five regional
offices, who will train representa­tives
from State offices. ASBO,
ASFSA and State Child Nutrition
Directors are anticipated to take the
lead in helping interested schools
and school districts become in­volved.
Use of the handbook is strictly
voluntary, but Oglesby and his FNS
coordinators feel that simply supply­ing
copies of the publication to in­terested
schools is not enough.
"We'd like to follow through with
managerial support as much as
possible." -.(;:(
7
By Elaine Brand I THE ANCIENT Hebrew writ- n ings which comprise the
Torah, the age-old record
of jewish law and tradition, it is
said: "Without sustenance, there is
no learning."
This need for sustenance is being
satisfied countless generations later
through the National School Lunch
Program, now involved in an inno­vative
measure to supply kosher
poultry to meet all of the religious
food restrictions of students who are
in yeshivas, or jewish parochial
schools.
Since the school day at a yeshiva
is long- typically 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
the need for a hearty, nutritious
lunch is crucial.
At the Yeshiva Dov Revel in Forest
Hills, N.Y., for example, almost the
entire student body-kindergarten
through eighth grade-participates
in the lunch program, an achieve-
8
ment not easily matched by most
. schools.
This record shows the flexibility
of the National School Lunch Pro­gram
in meeting different religious
and ethnic needs, such as serving
meals that follow kosher dietary
laws and also meet USDA require­ments
for Type A lunches.
Since only non-kosher poultry was
available until recently through the
National School Lunch Program,
yeshivas chose alternate sources of
protein to satisfy the Type A protein
requirement.
But according to Carrie Lipsig,
school food service chief for the
Board of jewish Education, "The
kids got so tired of the same things
all the time: eggs, tuna, noodles and
spaghetti, cottage cheese and fruit."
Then in September 1972, FNS'
food distribution program, working
through the New York State Depart­ment
of Education, entered into an
agreement with the Board to make
kosher poultry a USDA-donated
food. The system works like this:
USDA purchases processed Grade A
chickens and turkeys through com­petitive
bidding by kosher proces­sors,
with the Board of jewish Edu­cation
footing the bill for "kosheriz­ing"
(about 26 cents extra per
pound).
The Board offers the finished
product, in the form of frozen
chicken pieces and frozen turkey
roll, to the 130 of its member yeshi­vas
in the New York metropolitan
area which participipate in the lunch
program and which serve a total of
34,000 lunches daily. The schools
are entitled to the poultry on a pro­rated
basis, according to their aver­age
number of lunches served each
day. Approximately three-fourths of
these day schools - elementary
through high school-have so far
taken it, with more ready to accept
food and nutrition
!
Students at Yeshiva Dov Revel,
Forest Hills, N.Y., are enjoying the
newly expanded Type A menu,
which now includes kosher chick­en
deliciously prepared by chef
Emil Schuh (below).
august 1973
as soon as equipment problems are
solved.
"The availability of kosher poul­try,"
explains Wallace F. Warren,
FNS Northeast Regional Adminis­trator,
"reflects our continuing pol­icy
to cooperate to the fullest extent
possible with religious dietary pref­erences."
Dov Revel is located in a middle­class
community, but many of its
pupils are bussed in from poorer
surrounding neighborhoods. Accord­ing
to Mrs. Lipsig, "About 70 per
cent of the students in our schools
come from low-income families and
qualify for free or reduced-price
lunches."
Despite economic differences, the
students share a common traditional
Jewish heritage, having families that
chose yeshiva education in order to
provide their children with religious
training in school in addition to the
usual curriculum. They all come
from homes that "keep kosher."
Poultry destined to become
kosher must be handled by a spe­cially
trained processor.
All facilities used in preparing and
serving poultry and meat must be
kept separate from those used for
other foods. At Dov Revel, chef
Emil Schuh proves to be something
of a magician in producing juicy,
tender roast chicken for 750 students
using the school's meat stove-an
old-fashioned, cumbersome piece of
equipment inconveniently placed in
the small corner available.
But the yeshiva's soon-to-be­opened
junior high school division,
in a building under construction
attached to the present one, will
include a gleaming new kitchen
partly paid for with USDA funds,
which can provide up to 75 per cent
of the cost for food service equip-ment
in needy schools. It will free
the entire present kitchen as a meat
facility.
Kosher practice also prohibits
dairy products from being eaten in
a meal with meat or for 6 hours
afterward. But the Type A lunch calls
for a half-pint of milk. However, due
to the lunch program's flexibility,
this requirement can be met by
serving milk and cookies as a mid­morning
snack, with orange juice
as a luncheon beverage. The milk
is, of course, counted as part of the
lunch, which is priced as a unit
under USDA regulations.
On a recent "chicken day" at the
school, the poultry was accompanied
by corn, tossed salad, bread, and
canned peaches. The chicken was
roasted, but it can be served in any
style-even Southern fried!
Empty plates after the meal
marked the enthusiasm of the three
shifts of student diners, all neatly
dressed, the boys wearing the tradi­tional
yarmulka, or skull-cap. A
teacher ate with the children at each
table to subtly encourage good eat­ing
habits.
The dynamic Mrs. Lipsig of the
Board of Jewish Education says,
"Nutritionally, poultry is definitely
the answer as a top protein source
to keep the children going. And
they love it."
Purchases so far have totaled four
carlots (71 tons) for the New York
area. Under a similar arrangement,
another carlot has gone to Chicago
schools. Since USDA can supply only
full carlots, the Board has agreed to
serve as distributing agent for a
small number of schools in Penn­sylvania,
New Jersey, and Maryland.
An additional amount was included
in the Board's allocation to compen­sate
for this extra distribution. *
9
THERE ARE ANTS on a wall of
the Farmington View Elementary
School cafeteria, and if you look
very closely you'll be surprised to
see that one is sporting a pair of
black horn-rimmed glasses.
No, the ants aren't real, and
neither is the strange looking cat in
the funny looking hat, the long­eared
dog lounging on the roof of
his house, or the numerous other
animals and insects that liven up
the walls of the cafeteria.
They are parts of a mural painted
last summer by a group of volun­teers-
parents, teachers, children,
school cooks, custodians, and other
residents of this small country com­munity,
a few miles south of Hills­boro,
Ore.
A montage of familiar children's
storybook characters and creatures
from nature and reference books,
the mural has brightened up the
once dingy basement cafeteria, and
made school lunch what the prin­cipal
says it should be, "a happy,
pleasant time of day."
Additionally, the painting has
stirred the children's interest in the
characters portrayed and spurred the
school's reading program.
The giant mural, which covers
10
nearly 800 of the 1,400 square feet
of three cafeteria walls, includes
characters from 23 children's books
-Cat in the Hat, Snoopy, Bambi,
jungle Book and many others-as
well as a number of very realistic
insects, birds, animals, trees and
plants.
The characters, creatures and in­sects
are in storybook and natural
settings, most of which is very de­tailed.
Each of the 6 foot high scenes
is separated only by a natural object
-trees, rocks, water, etc. The effect
is a number of individual panels that
flow into one seemingly uninter­rupted
mural.
The originator and leader of the
project was artist Barbara Webb,
who operates an art school in the
nearby town of Hillsboro and has a
son attending Farmington View Ele­mentary.
Mrs. Webb brought her artistic
talents to the cafeteria walls by way
of the school library. One of several
parents who volunteered to work in
the library to keep it open longer
during the day, she became inter­ested
in the principal's project to
revitalize what he described as a
"neglected school building."
Robert Shupp, who had been
principal of the school for only one
year when the project began, ex­plains
that the cafeteria was "es­pecially
frightening." The corners
were used for storage, and the walls,
which he assumes were white at one
time, were a dingy gray.
"I wanted to bring the cafeteria
back to life," he says.
Assisted by two of her students,
Mary Lou Verdegan and Beverly Mil­ler,
Mrs. Webb organized the "paint­by-
numbers" project to solve the
problem.
Initially, they made a detailed
plan of the entire mural on a scale
of one inch to a foot for presenta­tion
to members of the school
board, who readily approved the
idea.
When school closed for the sum­mer,
Mrs. Webb, her two art stu­dents,
school personnel and vol­unteers
from the community began
the actual work.
According to Mrs. Webb, the
worst part of the job was washing
and preparing the walls. They used
an organic cleaner which prevented
the walls from soaking up the water
soluble paints.
Then they laid out the walls in
grids, and using an opaque pro-food
and nutrition
jector, projected scenes, characters,
animals, and insects from the pages
of books suggested by teachers. The
characters and scenes were outlined
in black, and color coded to cor­respond
with the more than 30
pastel colors mixed from 13 basic
paints.
Mrs. Webb estimates it took ap­proximately
900 hours to finish the
mural. "We had teachers, parents,
and children helping. Teenagers
playing on the school grounds would
come in to see what we were doing
and start to help."
A grandmother from Beaverton,
who read about the project in the
newspaper and came down to see
it, ended up working for 3 days.
The school cook painted Snoopy,
the custodian helped with the ant
hill and suggested the horn-rimmed
glasses for one ant, and the prin­cipal
donned his coveralls on several
occasions. Altogether, about 40
volunteers worked on the project
during the summer.
With such enthusiastic helpers,
Mrs. Webb says, any school can do
a similar job and very inexpensively.
The cost of the mural to the
school was $60, which covered ma­terials.
Drapes, bought by the "58"
august 1973
Club, a parents organization, were
$200. In addition the school district
had a new ceiling installed.
Mrs. Webb suggests that schools
attempting a similar project not go
into as much detail as she did. The
scenic background became so in­volved
that Principal Shupp, even
after a year of looking at the paint­ing,
is still discovering things he has
never seen before-a grasshopper
clinging to a blade of grass, for one.
"If we were to do it again," says
Mrs. Webb, "it would be on a flat
background. And it would be done
during the school year so that all
the children could get involved, kind
of watch it grow."
At first Shupp was hesitant about
letting the children touch the mural,
but he has since decided that touch­ing
is part of the whole thing. After
a year, he points out, the mural
hasn't been damaged.
While the mural has certainly im­proved
the atmosphere in the cafe­teria,
it has also been a boon to the
school's reading program. School
librarian Mrs. LaVerne Will says that
interest in the books portrayed on
the cafeteria walls has increased. She
often hears the children urging their
friends to read a book about their
favorite cafeteria wall character.
An additional effect, which Prin­cipal
Shupp credits to the mural, is
increased parental interest in the
school and its activities.
The convivial atmosphere in the
cafeteria will be further enhanced
next year when the school switches
to a "family style" arrangement.
Students in the fourth, fifth and sixth
grades will act as hosts and hostesses
at small group tables teaching
younger children table manners and
good eating habits by example.
"To help the younger children
learn what the cafeteria is all about
and how they are all part of it,"
Principal Shupp said, "students will
hand out milk and do other simple
chores."
Shupp explained that this was the
result of the second grade girls re­quest
to help out during lunchtime.
School personnel are now trying to
figure out how to apportion the
simple duties among all the eager
young volunteers.
Farmington View Elementary
School has participated in the Na­tional
School Lunch Program for 4
years. Participation is over 70 per­cent;
about 1 0 percent of the ch il­dren
receive free lunches. -k
11
A wall mural
of storybook
characters,
painted by
students and
teachers,
adds a cheer­ful
note to
the cafeteria
at Farming­ton
View
Elementary
School.
DECISION-MAKING is a key part
of the educational process.
That's the philosophy of Dr. Har­land
Paschal, superintendent of
schools for the Hutchinson, Kans.,
school district.
His philosophy of academic edu­cation
also carries over into the
school lunch program. Although the
elementary and junior high students
have a lunch planned for them each
day, senior high students pick the
components for their own lunches.
"We feel that students should
have more and more choices as they
grow older," explains Dr. Paschal.
"This not only applies to selection
of subjects they take, but to the
selection of foods they eat."
When Hutchinson decided last
12
High school students choose
their own Type A lunches.
year to do away with a Ia carte
menus in the high school and go to
the Type A lunch, he still wanted
to maintain a freedom of choice for
the students.
So Mrs. Bessie Coleman, food
service director for the system, hit
upon the "scramble system" idea.
Basically, the students choose from
three entrees. They also select fruits,
vegetables and desserts to meet FNS
requirements. Their selections are
then priced as a unit in accordance
with FNS regulations.
Signs over counters remind stu­dents
of the different kinds of foods
they must have on their plates.
"Occasionally the checker has to
ask someone to get a fruit or vege­table
item, but generally they do
pretty well," says Mrs. Coleman.
Mrs. Coleman felt a selling job
would be needed in the transition
from a Ia carte to Type A, so she
discussed the new meal pattern with
the faculty during their 3-day work
session prior to the opening of
school.
"September immediately put us
at a disadvantage on the switchover,
since milk had to be served with the
meals instead of iced tea," points
out Mrs. Coleman. To offset the hot
weather snydrome, the cafeteria
provided ice water for the students
in addition to milk. "That helped a
lot," she adds.
Maintaining student interest is a
continuous effort of the Hutchinson
food service personnel. They offer
lucky numbers each week, which
provide a free meal to the winning
student. They also use a clip and
ticket system for meal payments.
"This system saves time," says the
food service director, "and also
solves the problem of keeping secret
the identity of students receiving
free or reduced-price meals." A
student buying the weekly ticket or
getting it free receives it by mail at
home.
Changing from a Ia carte to Type
A has apparently made the lunch
program no less popular with the
students. In the high school, average
lunch participation amounts to
around 75 percent.
"We're still giving students a lot
of choice, and making sure that their
meal is nutritionally balanced be­sides,"
says Mrs. Coleman.
Having run a catering business
for several years before joining the
Hutchinson school food service staff,
Mrs. Coleman is a firm believer in
atmosphere and pride in food pre­paration,
and is particularly aware of
the importance of these traits in
lunch programs for high school stu­dents.
As Dr. Paschal says, "Much of the
success for the lunch program here
is the manner in which the food is
served. A lot of pride radiates from
the food service in our system."
The National School Lunch Pro­gram
is administered in Kansas by
the State Department of Education
in cooperation with USDA. *:
food and nutrition
By Thomas A. Gregory
august 1973
WHEN THE CHICKAMAUGA
Creek overran its banks in March
and inundated the heavily popu­lated
lowlands of Chattanooga,
Tenn., over 2,400 homes and 524
businesses were flooded by the
rushing waters. Over 8,000 were
made homeless.
When a catastrophe of such mag­nitude
strikes an area so unexpect­edly,
people often panic and pan­demonium
prevails. But this was
not the case in Chattanooga.
Methodically and calmly, the peo­ple
of Chattanooga assessed the
damages and began to take steps to
assist the victims. The prompt and
effective manner in which county,
State and Federal agencies united to
provide food for the distressed has
13
Quickly and efficiently,
residents of Chattanooga
assisted less fortunate
neighbors who were
flooded by the raging
waters of the Chicka­mauga
Creek. Through
close cooperation
among local, State, and
Federal agencies, food
stamps were provided
the victims with a mini-mum
of red tape.
been acclaimed by everyone as a
shining example of the correct way
to provide food for disaster victims.
It was done with USDA food
stamp coupons under the hardship
provision of the regular program.
Food stamps were issued in the
usual manner after the applicant's
eligibility had been determined.
Twelve days later, when the
waters subsided and conditions be­gan
to return to normal, eligible
flood victims had received sufficient
food with a minimum of red tape.
Important, too, was that cheating
14
had been almost non-existent.
The well-executed operation pro­vided
$145,965 in food stamps to
1,470 families, a total of 5,202 peo­ple.
None were issued on the
"short forms," which are abbrevi­ated
application forms used when
emergency food stamp procedures
are in effect. These often make it
difficult for officials to determine if
a recipient is really entitled to aid.
How was it accomplished?
Through well-organized plans and
close cooperation among the local,
State and Federal agencies.
As it became evident that a flood
of mammoth proportions was im­minent,
a meeting was held Sunday
with officials from FNS and the
county and State Departments of
Public Welfare. The group agreed
with Greta Hinds, State food stamp
supervisor, and Harry Foster, FNS
district manager, that the flood vic­tims
would need food immediately
and that beginning Monday, food
stamps would be issued to eligible
flood victims on a hardship basis.
This meant that flood victims
would apply for food stamp aid
food and nutrition
under the regular certification pro­cedures
with special attention to
personal hardships.
The group decided to issue the
stamps at Brainerd junior High
School, which had been designated
as the community relief center.
Solomon Lindsey, supervisor of
Social Services in the Hamilton
County Department of Public Wel­fare,
sent 30 caseworkers to the
Red Cross to interview disaster
victims. Because of their knowledge
of the people and experience in re­lief
work, they were invaluable. The
august 1973
caseworkers heard each victim's
story and referred him to the proper
agency for clothes, shelter, medi­cine,
food, etc.
Mrs. Lucile Artress, who had been
in her position as Hamilton County
food stamp supervisor only 6 weeks,
recruited 20 experienced food stamp
workers from nearby counties to
help in the emergency.
The entire procedure went like
clockwork. A homeless family could
walk into the center, apply for cou­pons,
and be on the way to the
supermarket in record time.
And, because of numerous safe­guards,
the operation was able to
prevent duplications, mistakes, and
frauds. The Police Department
agreed to store the stamps in vaults
over the week-end and transport
the stamps to the issuance offices.
Chattanooga was not a pretty
sight as the waters receded into the
banks of the mighty Chickamauga
Creek. The busy lowlands wer~
filled with people working to re­move
the mud and silt from their
doors to restore the beauty of their
cU~ *
15
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Division of Public Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402
Official Business.
Penalty for Private Use, $300
EARLL. BUTZ
Secretary of Agriculture
CLAYTON YEUTTER
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
r, . ..
EDWARD j. HEKMAN
Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
BQNNif-W. l>ot."'R:! rdi'tor:..
JANFCE~lf::r?t!RN, Managing Editor
MARCIA B. EDDINS, Art Director
FOOD AND NUTRITION is published
bimonthly by the Food and Nutrition
Service, U.S. Department of Agricul­ture,
Washington, D.C. 20250. The
use of funds for printing this publica­tion
was approved by the Director
of the Office of Management and
Budget December 4, 1970. Yearly
subscription is $2.00 domestic, $2.50
foreign. Single copies 45 cents each.
Subscription orders should be sent to
the Superintendent of Documents,
Government Printing Office, Wash­ington,
D.C. 20402.
Reference to commercial products
and services does not imply endorse­ment
or discrimination by the De­partment
of Agriculture.
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Department
!
I
I
II
I!
II
Drive to Serve Grows
POSTAGE [I) & FEES PAID
U.S. DEPT.
OF
AGRICULTURE U.S.MAIL
AGR 101
THIRD CLASS BLK. RT.
Permit Number .005-5
Accounting Made Easy
"Keeping Kosher" with Chicken
Cafeteria + Color= Fun
Kids Scramble to Lunch
Ongoing Flood Relief
of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.. . J.~!1 '_:. . ·-~;>,,~-2.
20250. Jl , ]>:-~ • . ,., •• J"· ~-1 -
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTLf . ~ .::J,,~,;'Jf..
{:[ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1973-0-511-855/6

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The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5482

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\ I I
August 1973 • Volume 3 • Number 4 I For Building Use Only I PROPERlY Of THE
URRARV
OCT 9 1973
UNIVEtt~llY OF NORll'l {; ... 14ilt.INA
AT GREENSI:lOHO
0447A
to
A group of teenagers
in Napa, Calif., or­ganized
by the Jaycees,
sort USDA-donated
foods at the warehouse
and take it to low­income
elderly partici­pants
in the food dis­tribution
program who
are unable to pick up
the foods themselves.
Terri Ow-Wing, coor­dinator
of the pilot
program (p. 3 top left
and bottom right pho­tos,)
helps out in the
food deliveries.
StudentsJoinJaycees
FOR MOST ELDERLY Americans
the "golden years" are a time to get
out of the hectic day-to-day routine
and enjoy the comforts bought with
years of labor.
Yet for many of the elderly, these
years can mean isolation, loneliness
and disillusionment brought on by
low fixed incomes, physical disabili­ties,
and the accompanying thought
that no one really cares.
In Napa, Calif., a group of teen­agers,
organized and backed by the
local chapter of the United States
Jaycees, a national service organiza­tion,
have been helping to make
life better for one golden age group
through the Drive to Serve program.
Drive to Serve is a food delivery
system manned by volunteers who
assist low-income elderly and dis­abled
participants in the county­operated
USDA food distribution
program.
The recipients of this service are
at least 65 years old or totally dis­abled.
Because of lack of transpor­tation,
personal disabilities, or the
august 1973
inability to physically handle the up
to 40 pounds of food allotted per
person a month, it is necessary for
the food to be delivered to their
homes.
The Drive to Serve concept has
been successfully tested by volun­teer
groups in various parts of the
country, including five projects op­erated
by individual Red Cross
chapters.
The significance of the Napa proj­ect
is its implications for nationwide
application. According to Bud Ge­low,
chairman of the Napa Jaycees
Drive to Serve project, "Jaycee
chapters across the Nation were
watching the project with interest
as a possible model for other Jaycee­sponsored
Drive to Serve efforts."
As a result of the Napa Jaycees'
successful 6-month pilot project, the
program has been extended indefi­nitely
by an agreement signed by the
Napa Jaycees, local school officials,
the State of California, and FNS.
The Napa project grew out of
the 1972 National Jaycees Conven-
3
,,
tion where a Jaycee sponsored Drive
to Serve project was voted one of
the top five priority projects. The
Napa chapter, joined by the county
welfare department and State and
local school officials, signed an
agreement with FNS to organize and
operate a pilot program for 6
months, using volunteer high school
student help.
In September the group began
recruiting volunteer high school stu­dents
from Napa High School. The
program started small-ten students
using their cars, gas, and free time,
served 22 households. Upon com­pletion
of the 6-month test, more
than 50 households containing about
90 persons were receiving regular
monthly deliveries of food. Over the
course of the pilot project, nearly
70 teenagers became involved. The
majority of students were from
Napa High School, with additional
volunteers from Napa's Justin-Siena
and Vintage high schools.
The Napa Jaycees credit the suc­cess
of the program to the teenage
volunteers and their coordinator,
Terri Ow-Wing. Terri, a junior at
Napa High School, was appointed
coordinator by the Jaycees. She
makes sure the students come to the
warehouse the day before the
monthly delivery to pack the indi­vidual
household boxes and arranges
routes and schedules for the 4 days
the foods are delivered.
Terri explains that operations in
the beginning were "more or less
on the spur of the moment." When
the day came to pack or deliver, she
would call friends and ask them to
help out.
Operational proficiency has im­proved
over the months and now
schedules are made up a week in
advance of packing and delivery.
Twelve regular routes have been
established to cover the city and
nearby countryside. Students work­ing
in pairs can generally complete
their selected routes in an hour.
Teenagers selecting the city routes
make up to six stops. Those volun­teers
who select longer routes make
fewer stops, with a couple of long­distance
trips servicing only one
household.
The students' commitment has
august 1973
grown with their one-to-one meet­ings
with the elderly and disabled.
Ray lopez, head of the food distri­bution
center, says that while the
expressed purpose of the program
is to get needed food to the elderly
and disabled, equally important aims
are teenager I elderly interaction, and
developing within the teenager an
awareness of the problems of the
elderly. The teenagers are urged
not to drop off the food and hurry
on but, if they aren't rushed, to
stop and talk for a few minutes.
Many of the teenagers help to put
the food away:
lopez goes out regularly to visit
the recipients, "just to see if every­thing
is all right." Elderly reaction
to the teenagers, lopez says is good.
"They really like the kids."
At ceremonies at Napa High
School upon completion of the 6-
month pilot program, students par­ticipating
in the Drive to Serve proj­ect
were presented Certificates of
Appreciation from USDA. Addition­ally,
the volunteers were lauded by
local, State and Federal officials, and
by the national Jaycee organization
for their contributions to the success
of the program. 'k
National Guard Volunteers
IN SALEM, MASS.-where land­mark
homes, still standing, were said
to house witches in the 17th century
-some modern-day magic has cast
a spell of community spirit that is
bringing food to the town's elderly
shut-ins.
The local National Guard unit has
volunteered to help other Federal,
State, and city agencies in a coop­erative
venture to deliver USDA-donated
foods to the doorsteps of
senior citizens who are unable to
travel to distribution centers.
One day each month, at the Salem
food distribution center at 1 OS Con­gress
Street, about 10 Guardsmen
load bags of food , each earmarked
for a particular family or individual,
onto four trucks supplied by the
Guard. The trucks make several trips
along specified routes, delivering
5
food to four housing projects for the
elderly and to individual homes.
"We have people participating
now who were never in the pr_ogram
before, because they couldn't get
out to pick up their food," says
Michael J. Rolli, director of food
distribution programs for the Massa­chusetts
Department of Public Wel­fare,
the State agency responsible for
distributing food and certifying re­cipients.
"Since the delivery program
started last August with 88 partici­pants,
it's been steadily expanding.
In February, 193 people received
food."
Surveys conducted in the Salem
area had revealed that many po­tentially
eligible elderly people were
not participating in the food distri­bution
program due to lack of trans­portation
or ill health.
Capt. Leonard Cormier, com­mander
of the Salem National Guard
decided that a delivery program to
help the elderly would be a good
way to involve the Guard in commu­nity
affairs. He arranged for Guards­men
to participate on a voluntary
basis, substituting the work for
certain training exercises.
Specialist 5 John Alleruzzo is typ­ical
of the volunteers in the pride
and enthusiasm he shows toward the
program."
"We know we're providing a real
service," he says. At Christmas, many
recipients tried to express their grati­tude
by tipping the men. When their
money was refused, the recipients
sent Christmas cards and home­baked
cakes and cookies to the
Guard Armory.
"What's making things happen
here," says Mrs. Ferrante, "is effi­cient
coordination of Federal, State,
and local programs."
The local government pays the
rent for the food distribution center.
The food is packaged in bags by
several employees hired under the
Federal Emergency Employment Act.
Local college volunteers also help
out.
State participation involves the
National Guard, the Department of
Public Welfare, and the Department
of Education, which is the official
food distributing agency for the
State.
6
The food distribution program is
designed to help low-income per­sons
maintain a balanced diet by
using donated foods to supplement
their own food purchases.
About 20 items are available each
month, including canned meat or
poultry, processed fruits and vege­tables,
butter, flour, and shortening,
among others.
The 2,000 Salem participants can
take all or some of the commodities.
Those on the delivery program indi­cate
their choices on a mail-in order
form.
Mrs. Gertrude Fleming, lively and
ebullient at 71, is delighted to accept
all the foods.
"At first I only took a few little
things," she explains. "I didn't want
them to think I was greedy. But then
one of the volunteers pointed out
that the food is there to be used,
and now I can make use of every­thing.
"I love to cook!" she continues,
with a glance toward the small but
tidy kitchen in her apartment at the
Pioneer Terrace Housing for the El­derly.
"I use the foods to make
bread, meat pies, baked beans, rice
custard pudding like my mother
used to make .... "
The Salem National Guard's role
in food delivery is a prototype that
other units in the State are beginning
to emulate. It's an effective way to
deal with chronic personnel short­ages
in order to make sure that do­nated
foods for the elderly are not
"so close and yet so far." i::f
Aeeounting
Made
·~ FEW PEOPLE NEED to be told how
challenging it is to manage the fi­nances
of a school cafeteria or of
any school food service operation.
Keeping accurate accounts is crucial
to a school system's ability to pin­point
efficient techniques and cost-food
and nutrition
saving methods, which help to maxi­mize
productivity and minimize ex­penditures.
But what's the best way to go
about obtaining such records? For
example, is it more accurate to list
food as an expenditure when it's
purchased ... or when it's actually
used? And what about accounting
for free and reduced-price lunches
between the time they're eaten and
the time reimbursement is received?
Up until now, school districts
across the country have been on
their own in their search for uniform
financial accounting procedures
which will meet the management
needs of all sizes of food service
operations.
Keeping pace with the continued
rise in Federal subsidies to child
nutrition programs fs one very real
incentive for establishing the best
possible record-keeping system. And
reducing the number of "problem
areas" in school food service finan­cial
management, as pointed out in
yearly independent audits, is an­other.
It is a credit to the resourcefulness
and expertise of school food service
and business personnel that many
excellent accounting systems are al­ready
operating at close-to-peak ca­pacity
throughout the Nation. Soon
all schools will be able to share in
the successes in financial manage­ment
experienced by schools
through the availability of the new
"School Food Service Financial
Management Handbook for Uniform
Accounting."
A reference guide of proven and
approved ways of tackling account­ing
problems, the handbook can be
obtained by any school through a
request to its State Child Nutrition
Director. It is the result of nearly
2Y2 years' joint effort by local and
State school business officials, school
food service directors, and expert
accountants under the direction of
FNS.
The purpose of the handbook is
twofold. First, it furnishes users a
good management tool as a proven
method for control over the admin­istrative
and financial aspects of a
school's child nutrition programs.
Secondly, it establishes sought-after
august 1973
uniform guidelines which help
schools control their expenditures
and make complete data reports to
State and regional administrators.
The School Food Service Financial
Management Handbook provides
not only a uniform accounting sys­tem,
but also specific "how to's,"
basic management information in a
comprehensive form, and a standard
data flow for reimbursement report­ing.
The handbook is available in
both a streamlined, simplified for­mat
for smaller school food service
operations, and a "complete" for­mat
especially useful to large or
complex operations.
"Until now, we could not accu­rately
gauge why one school had
significantly lower operating ex­penses
than another in a similar
situation," explains Herbert Rorex,
Director of the FNS Child Nutrition
Division.
With the accounting principles
and techniques for comparison of
data established in the handbook­and
every school readily capable of
referring to the same book for ad­vice
and clarification-the individual
school will now be able to alleviate
many of its accounting problems in
short order and in confidence.
In addition, improved statistical
data from schools will assist the
Washington staff in planning for
future child nutrition program de­velopment.
This, in turn, ultimately
benefits the individual schools and
school districts, ensuring accurate
fund distribution and reimburse­ments,
in line with the new "per­formance
funding" requirement set
forth in recent child nutrition legisla­tion.
The Financial Management Hand­book
was developed and written by
a well-known accounting firm, in
close association with representa­tives
of the American School Food
Service Association (ASFSA) and the
Association of School Business Of­ficials
(ASBO), who initiated the in­formal
request to USDA for a uni­form
accounting system early in
1971 . Under FNS guidance, the ac­counting
firm was contracted to do
the job in the early months of 1972
-and an in-house committee of
Federal child nutrition and school
lunch employees reviewed each
chapter of the draft as it was written.
In April 1972, FNS invited a 35-
member advisory committee con­sisting
of regional personnel, State
School Lunch Directors, Superin­tendents
of Schools, Chief State
School Officers, and State account
coordinators to meet in Washington
and review the first complete draft.
As a result of this meeting, the
draft was modified and field-tested
in nine school systems in five States
for 3 months last fall. The school
systems-in Virginia, Ohio, Arizona,
Pennsylvania and Maryland-repre­sented
various types of food service
operations and the testing involved
all levels of government from dis­trict
to Federal.
When field tests revealed a need
for further simplification in language
and procedures, Peat, Marwick, and
Mitchell again revised the draft. The
revised version was accepted with
only minor changes by the advisory
review committee this March.
The handbook also prescribes a
basic information system through
the use of accounting principles and
techniques. These principles en­compass
all of the functions found
in sound financial management in­cluding
bookkeeping, payroll and
other labor management controls,
inventory management, purchasing,
and cost and revenue accounting.
"The handbook will become the
single most significant element in a
sound cost-accounting system," ex­plains
David Oglesby, FNS national
project monitor.
As national project monitor,
Oglesby has been instructing select­ed
FNS personnel in the five regional
offices, who will train representa­tives
from State offices. ASBO,
ASFSA and State Child Nutrition
Directors are anticipated to take the
lead in helping interested schools
and school districts become in­volved.
Use of the handbook is strictly
voluntary, but Oglesby and his FNS
coordinators feel that simply supply­ing
copies of the publication to in­terested
schools is not enough.
"We'd like to follow through with
managerial support as much as
possible." -.(;:(
7
By Elaine Brand I THE ANCIENT Hebrew writ- n ings which comprise the
Torah, the age-old record
of jewish law and tradition, it is
said: "Without sustenance, there is
no learning."
This need for sustenance is being
satisfied countless generations later
through the National School Lunch
Program, now involved in an inno­vative
measure to supply kosher
poultry to meet all of the religious
food restrictions of students who are
in yeshivas, or jewish parochial
schools.
Since the school day at a yeshiva
is long- typically 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
the need for a hearty, nutritious
lunch is crucial.
At the Yeshiva Dov Revel in Forest
Hills, N.Y., for example, almost the
entire student body-kindergarten
through eighth grade-participates
in the lunch program, an achieve-
8
ment not easily matched by most
. schools.
This record shows the flexibility
of the National School Lunch Pro­gram
in meeting different religious
and ethnic needs, such as serving
meals that follow kosher dietary
laws and also meet USDA require­ments
for Type A lunches.
Since only non-kosher poultry was
available until recently through the
National School Lunch Program,
yeshivas chose alternate sources of
protein to satisfy the Type A protein
requirement.
But according to Carrie Lipsig,
school food service chief for the
Board of jewish Education, "The
kids got so tired of the same things
all the time: eggs, tuna, noodles and
spaghetti, cottage cheese and fruit."
Then in September 1972, FNS'
food distribution program, working
through the New York State Depart­ment
of Education, entered into an
agreement with the Board to make
kosher poultry a USDA-donated
food. The system works like this:
USDA purchases processed Grade A
chickens and turkeys through com­petitive
bidding by kosher proces­sors,
with the Board of jewish Edu­cation
footing the bill for "kosheriz­ing"
(about 26 cents extra per
pound).
The Board offers the finished
product, in the form of frozen
chicken pieces and frozen turkey
roll, to the 130 of its member yeshi­vas
in the New York metropolitan
area which participipate in the lunch
program and which serve a total of
34,000 lunches daily. The schools
are entitled to the poultry on a pro­rated
basis, according to their aver­age
number of lunches served each
day. Approximately three-fourths of
these day schools - elementary
through high school-have so far
taken it, with more ready to accept
food and nutrition
!
Students at Yeshiva Dov Revel,
Forest Hills, N.Y., are enjoying the
newly expanded Type A menu,
which now includes kosher chick­en
deliciously prepared by chef
Emil Schuh (below).
august 1973
as soon as equipment problems are
solved.
"The availability of kosher poul­try,"
explains Wallace F. Warren,
FNS Northeast Regional Adminis­trator,
"reflects our continuing pol­icy
to cooperate to the fullest extent
possible with religious dietary pref­erences."
Dov Revel is located in a middle­class
community, but many of its
pupils are bussed in from poorer
surrounding neighborhoods. Accord­ing
to Mrs. Lipsig, "About 70 per
cent of the students in our schools
come from low-income families and
qualify for free or reduced-price
lunches."
Despite economic differences, the
students share a common traditional
Jewish heritage, having families that
chose yeshiva education in order to
provide their children with religious
training in school in addition to the
usual curriculum. They all come
from homes that "keep kosher."
Poultry destined to become
kosher must be handled by a spe­cially
trained processor.
All facilities used in preparing and
serving poultry and meat must be
kept separate from those used for
other foods. At Dov Revel, chef
Emil Schuh proves to be something
of a magician in producing juicy,
tender roast chicken for 750 students
using the school's meat stove-an
old-fashioned, cumbersome piece of
equipment inconveniently placed in
the small corner available.
But the yeshiva's soon-to-be­opened
junior high school division,
in a building under construction
attached to the present one, will
include a gleaming new kitchen
partly paid for with USDA funds,
which can provide up to 75 per cent
of the cost for food service equip-ment
in needy schools. It will free
the entire present kitchen as a meat
facility.
Kosher practice also prohibits
dairy products from being eaten in
a meal with meat or for 6 hours
afterward. But the Type A lunch calls
for a half-pint of milk. However, due
to the lunch program's flexibility,
this requirement can be met by
serving milk and cookies as a mid­morning
snack, with orange juice
as a luncheon beverage. The milk
is, of course, counted as part of the
lunch, which is priced as a unit
under USDA regulations.
On a recent "chicken day" at the
school, the poultry was accompanied
by corn, tossed salad, bread, and
canned peaches. The chicken was
roasted, but it can be served in any
style-even Southern fried!
Empty plates after the meal
marked the enthusiasm of the three
shifts of student diners, all neatly
dressed, the boys wearing the tradi­tional
yarmulka, or skull-cap. A
teacher ate with the children at each
table to subtly encourage good eat­ing
habits.
The dynamic Mrs. Lipsig of the
Board of Jewish Education says,
"Nutritionally, poultry is definitely
the answer as a top protein source
to keep the children going. And
they love it."
Purchases so far have totaled four
carlots (71 tons) for the New York
area. Under a similar arrangement,
another carlot has gone to Chicago
schools. Since USDA can supply only
full carlots, the Board has agreed to
serve as distributing agent for a
small number of schools in Penn­sylvania,
New Jersey, and Maryland.
An additional amount was included
in the Board's allocation to compen­sate
for this extra distribution. *
9
THERE ARE ANTS on a wall of
the Farmington View Elementary
School cafeteria, and if you look
very closely you'll be surprised to
see that one is sporting a pair of
black horn-rimmed glasses.
No, the ants aren't real, and
neither is the strange looking cat in
the funny looking hat, the long­eared
dog lounging on the roof of
his house, or the numerous other
animals and insects that liven up
the walls of the cafeteria.
They are parts of a mural painted
last summer by a group of volun­teers-
parents, teachers, children,
school cooks, custodians, and other
residents of this small country com­munity,
a few miles south of Hills­boro,
Ore.
A montage of familiar children's
storybook characters and creatures
from nature and reference books,
the mural has brightened up the
once dingy basement cafeteria, and
made school lunch what the prin­cipal
says it should be, "a happy,
pleasant time of day."
Additionally, the painting has
stirred the children's interest in the
characters portrayed and spurred the
school's reading program.
The giant mural, which covers
10
nearly 800 of the 1,400 square feet
of three cafeteria walls, includes
characters from 23 children's books
-Cat in the Hat, Snoopy, Bambi,
jungle Book and many others-as
well as a number of very realistic
insects, birds, animals, trees and
plants.
The characters, creatures and in­sects
are in storybook and natural
settings, most of which is very de­tailed.
Each of the 6 foot high scenes
is separated only by a natural object
-trees, rocks, water, etc. The effect
is a number of individual panels that
flow into one seemingly uninter­rupted
mural.
The originator and leader of the
project was artist Barbara Webb,
who operates an art school in the
nearby town of Hillsboro and has a
son attending Farmington View Ele­mentary.
Mrs. Webb brought her artistic
talents to the cafeteria walls by way
of the school library. One of several
parents who volunteered to work in
the library to keep it open longer
during the day, she became inter­ested
in the principal's project to
revitalize what he described as a
"neglected school building."
Robert Shupp, who had been
principal of the school for only one
year when the project began, ex­plains
that the cafeteria was "es­pecially
frightening." The corners
were used for storage, and the walls,
which he assumes were white at one
time, were a dingy gray.
"I wanted to bring the cafeteria
back to life," he says.
Assisted by two of her students,
Mary Lou Verdegan and Beverly Mil­ler,
Mrs. Webb organized the "paint­by-
numbers" project to solve the
problem.
Initially, they made a detailed
plan of the entire mural on a scale
of one inch to a foot for presenta­tion
to members of the school
board, who readily approved the
idea.
When school closed for the sum­mer,
Mrs. Webb, her two art stu­dents,
school personnel and vol­unteers
from the community began
the actual work.
According to Mrs. Webb, the
worst part of the job was washing
and preparing the walls. They used
an organic cleaner which prevented
the walls from soaking up the water
soluble paints.
Then they laid out the walls in
grids, and using an opaque pro-food
and nutrition
jector, projected scenes, characters,
animals, and insects from the pages
of books suggested by teachers. The
characters and scenes were outlined
in black, and color coded to cor­respond
with the more than 30
pastel colors mixed from 13 basic
paints.
Mrs. Webb estimates it took ap­proximately
900 hours to finish the
mural. "We had teachers, parents,
and children helping. Teenagers
playing on the school grounds would
come in to see what we were doing
and start to help."
A grandmother from Beaverton,
who read about the project in the
newspaper and came down to see
it, ended up working for 3 days.
The school cook painted Snoopy,
the custodian helped with the ant
hill and suggested the horn-rimmed
glasses for one ant, and the prin­cipal
donned his coveralls on several
occasions. Altogether, about 40
volunteers worked on the project
during the summer.
With such enthusiastic helpers,
Mrs. Webb says, any school can do
a similar job and very inexpensively.
The cost of the mural to the
school was $60, which covered ma­terials.
Drapes, bought by the "58"
august 1973
Club, a parents organization, were
$200. In addition the school district
had a new ceiling installed.
Mrs. Webb suggests that schools
attempting a similar project not go
into as much detail as she did. The
scenic background became so in­volved
that Principal Shupp, even
after a year of looking at the paint­ing,
is still discovering things he has
never seen before-a grasshopper
clinging to a blade of grass, for one.
"If we were to do it again," says
Mrs. Webb, "it would be on a flat
background. And it would be done
during the school year so that all
the children could get involved, kind
of watch it grow."
At first Shupp was hesitant about
letting the children touch the mural,
but he has since decided that touch­ing
is part of the whole thing. After
a year, he points out, the mural
hasn't been damaged.
While the mural has certainly im­proved
the atmosphere in the cafe­teria,
it has also been a boon to the
school's reading program. School
librarian Mrs. LaVerne Will says that
interest in the books portrayed on
the cafeteria walls has increased. She
often hears the children urging their
friends to read a book about their
favorite cafeteria wall character.
An additional effect, which Prin­cipal
Shupp credits to the mural, is
increased parental interest in the
school and its activities.
The convivial atmosphere in the
cafeteria will be further enhanced
next year when the school switches
to a "family style" arrangement.
Students in the fourth, fifth and sixth
grades will act as hosts and hostesses
at small group tables teaching
younger children table manners and
good eating habits by example.
"To help the younger children
learn what the cafeteria is all about
and how they are all part of it,"
Principal Shupp said, "students will
hand out milk and do other simple
chores."
Shupp explained that this was the
result of the second grade girls re­quest
to help out during lunchtime.
School personnel are now trying to
figure out how to apportion the
simple duties among all the eager
young volunteers.
Farmington View Elementary
School has participated in the Na­tional
School Lunch Program for 4
years. Participation is over 70 per­cent;
about 1 0 percent of the ch il­dren
receive free lunches. -k
11
A wall mural
of storybook
characters,
painted by
students and
teachers,
adds a cheer­ful
note to
the cafeteria
at Farming­ton
View
Elementary
School.
DECISION-MAKING is a key part
of the educational process.
That's the philosophy of Dr. Har­land
Paschal, superintendent of
schools for the Hutchinson, Kans.,
school district.
His philosophy of academic edu­cation
also carries over into the
school lunch program. Although the
elementary and junior high students
have a lunch planned for them each
day, senior high students pick the
components for their own lunches.
"We feel that students should
have more and more choices as they
grow older," explains Dr. Paschal.
"This not only applies to selection
of subjects they take, but to the
selection of foods they eat."
When Hutchinson decided last
12
High school students choose
their own Type A lunches.
year to do away with a Ia carte
menus in the high school and go to
the Type A lunch, he still wanted
to maintain a freedom of choice for
the students.
So Mrs. Bessie Coleman, food
service director for the system, hit
upon the "scramble system" idea.
Basically, the students choose from
three entrees. They also select fruits,
vegetables and desserts to meet FNS
requirements. Their selections are
then priced as a unit in accordance
with FNS regulations.
Signs over counters remind stu­dents
of the different kinds of foods
they must have on their plates.
"Occasionally the checker has to
ask someone to get a fruit or vege­table
item, but generally they do
pretty well," says Mrs. Coleman.
Mrs. Coleman felt a selling job
would be needed in the transition
from a Ia carte to Type A, so she
discussed the new meal pattern with
the faculty during their 3-day work
session prior to the opening of
school.
"September immediately put us
at a disadvantage on the switchover,
since milk had to be served with the
meals instead of iced tea," points
out Mrs. Coleman. To offset the hot
weather snydrome, the cafeteria
provided ice water for the students
in addition to milk. "That helped a
lot," she adds.
Maintaining student interest is a
continuous effort of the Hutchinson
food service personnel. They offer
lucky numbers each week, which
provide a free meal to the winning
student. They also use a clip and
ticket system for meal payments.
"This system saves time," says the
food service director, "and also
solves the problem of keeping secret
the identity of students receiving
free or reduced-price meals." A
student buying the weekly ticket or
getting it free receives it by mail at
home.
Changing from a Ia carte to Type
A has apparently made the lunch
program no less popular with the
students. In the high school, average
lunch participation amounts to
around 75 percent.
"We're still giving students a lot
of choice, and making sure that their
meal is nutritionally balanced be­sides,"
says Mrs. Coleman.
Having run a catering business
for several years before joining the
Hutchinson school food service staff,
Mrs. Coleman is a firm believer in
atmosphere and pride in food pre­paration,
and is particularly aware of
the importance of these traits in
lunch programs for high school stu­dents.
As Dr. Paschal says, "Much of the
success for the lunch program here
is the manner in which the food is
served. A lot of pride radiates from
the food service in our system."
The National School Lunch Pro­gram
is administered in Kansas by
the State Department of Education
in cooperation with USDA. *:
food and nutrition
By Thomas A. Gregory
august 1973
WHEN THE CHICKAMAUGA
Creek overran its banks in March
and inundated the heavily popu­lated
lowlands of Chattanooga,
Tenn., over 2,400 homes and 524
businesses were flooded by the
rushing waters. Over 8,000 were
made homeless.
When a catastrophe of such mag­nitude
strikes an area so unexpect­edly,
people often panic and pan­demonium
prevails. But this was
not the case in Chattanooga.
Methodically and calmly, the peo­ple
of Chattanooga assessed the
damages and began to take steps to
assist the victims. The prompt and
effective manner in which county,
State and Federal agencies united to
provide food for the distressed has
13
Quickly and efficiently,
residents of Chattanooga
assisted less fortunate
neighbors who were
flooded by the raging
waters of the Chicka­mauga
Creek. Through
close cooperation
among local, State, and
Federal agencies, food
stamps were provided
the victims with a mini-mum
of red tape.
been acclaimed by everyone as a
shining example of the correct way
to provide food for disaster victims.
It was done with USDA food
stamp coupons under the hardship
provision of the regular program.
Food stamps were issued in the
usual manner after the applicant's
eligibility had been determined.
Twelve days later, when the
waters subsided and conditions be­gan
to return to normal, eligible
flood victims had received sufficient
food with a minimum of red tape.
Important, too, was that cheating
14
had been almost non-existent.
The well-executed operation pro­vided
$145,965 in food stamps to
1,470 families, a total of 5,202 peo­ple.
None were issued on the
"short forms," which are abbrevi­ated
application forms used when
emergency food stamp procedures
are in effect. These often make it
difficult for officials to determine if
a recipient is really entitled to aid.
How was it accomplished?
Through well-organized plans and
close cooperation among the local,
State and Federal agencies.
As it became evident that a flood
of mammoth proportions was im­minent,
a meeting was held Sunday
with officials from FNS and the
county and State Departments of
Public Welfare. The group agreed
with Greta Hinds, State food stamp
supervisor, and Harry Foster, FNS
district manager, that the flood vic­tims
would need food immediately
and that beginning Monday, food
stamps would be issued to eligible
flood victims on a hardship basis.
This meant that flood victims
would apply for food stamp aid
food and nutrition
under the regular certification pro­cedures
with special attention to
personal hardships.
The group decided to issue the
stamps at Brainerd junior High
School, which had been designated
as the community relief center.
Solomon Lindsey, supervisor of
Social Services in the Hamilton
County Department of Public Wel­fare,
sent 30 caseworkers to the
Red Cross to interview disaster
victims. Because of their knowledge
of the people and experience in re­lief
work, they were invaluable. The
august 1973
caseworkers heard each victim's
story and referred him to the proper
agency for clothes, shelter, medi­cine,
food, etc.
Mrs. Lucile Artress, who had been
in her position as Hamilton County
food stamp supervisor only 6 weeks,
recruited 20 experienced food stamp
workers from nearby counties to
help in the emergency.
The entire procedure went like
clockwork. A homeless family could
walk into the center, apply for cou­pons,
and be on the way to the
supermarket in record time.
And, because of numerous safe­guards,
the operation was able to
prevent duplications, mistakes, and
frauds. The Police Department
agreed to store the stamps in vaults
over the week-end and transport
the stamps to the issuance offices.
Chattanooga was not a pretty
sight as the waters receded into the
banks of the mighty Chickamauga
Creek. The busy lowlands wer~
filled with people working to re­move
the mud and silt from their
doors to restore the beauty of their
cU~ *
15
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Division of Public Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402
Official Business.
Penalty for Private Use, $300
EARLL. BUTZ
Secretary of Agriculture
CLAYTON YEUTTER
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
r, . ..
EDWARD j. HEKMAN
Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
BQNNif-W. l>ot."'R:! rdi'tor:..
JANFCE~lf::r?t!RN, Managing Editor
MARCIA B. EDDINS, Art Director
FOOD AND NUTRITION is published
bimonthly by the Food and Nutrition
Service, U.S. Department of Agricul­ture,
Washington, D.C. 20250. The
use of funds for printing this publica­tion
was approved by the Director
of the Office of Management and
Budget December 4, 1970. Yearly
subscription is $2.00 domestic, $2.50
foreign. Single copies 45 cents each.
Subscription orders should be sent to
the Superintendent of Documents,
Government Printing Office, Wash­ington,
D.C. 20402.
Reference to commercial products
and services does not imply endorse­ment
or discrimination by the De­partment
of Agriculture.
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Department
!
I
I
II
I!
II
Drive to Serve Grows
POSTAGE [I) & FEES PAID
U.S. DEPT.
OF
AGRICULTURE U.S.MAIL
AGR 101
THIRD CLASS BLK. RT.
Permit Number .005-5
Accounting Made Easy
"Keeping Kosher" with Chicken
Cafeteria + Color= Fun
Kids Scramble to Lunch
Ongoing Flood Relief
of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.. . J.~!1 '_:. . ·-~;>,,~-2.
20250. Jl , ]>:-~ • . ,., •• J"· ~-1 -
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTLf . ~ .::J,,~,;'Jf..
{:[ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1973-0-511-855/6